Experimenting with Extreme Crochet

Hello everyone

Hope you've all had a relaxing weekend.  We have had a lovely time, family 80th birthday celebration yesterday, short walk and a look round the 'Blue' exhibition at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen this morning  http://www.crafts.org.uk/ and a bit of extreme crochet this afternoon (the real reason for this blog!). Perfect!

I thought it would be great to link this post with Handmade Monday over at 1st Unique gifts http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/about-handmade-monday/ as I know you all enjoyed the blog post about Chester.   This project, whilst smaller, is created on an even bigger hook than Chester!  Think what size Chester could turn out if I used the hook and yarn I used for these projects!  Wowee!  I'd have a job to get him in the house, let alone the car!  Anyway, I'll stop waffling.  I know you want to find out about these projects!

Well as I have already said, the projects are quite small but the hook and yarn is not!  You may or may not know that I run workshops from time to time and I have an Extreme Crochet one coming up soon at the end of April and hopefully another one coming up in June, so I am starting to think of projects which can be achieved in one day.  Remembering of course it also takes a while to sort out all the yarn!  Anyway have a look at the first one and see what you think.

It is difficult to tell the scale in this photograph but the next one may be more helpful.  I used a 25mm hook and 20 strands of dk yarn at a time.  I thought this would look rather nice on the wall of a conservatory maybe.  I did think it would look even better if I edged it in the same yellow as the centre but I haven't got enough!

Does this show the scale a little better?  I hung it on the wall in place of one of the pictures and held up a bottle of wine next to it so you could see how big it actually is.

A close-up of the flower shows the stitches in this photo.  Counting sewing in the ends it took about 1.5 - 2 hrs to complete.  So, may be possible to make a couple in a one day workshop depending how much chat and eating cake is going on!

This next project, a Granny Square seat pad cushion for a garden chair (or a kitchen chair for that matter) or a kneeling pad for gardening, was suggested by In the Sky http://inthesky1.blogspot.co.uk/ so I thought I'd give it a go.

You would not believe it, but this is only 2 rounds of a granny square!  It probably took a similar amount of time to work up as the flower - perhaps nearer the 1 - 1.5 hours.  It's the sewing in of the ends that take the time.

Here it is on a chair!  Unfortunately we have no square chairs in the house, this was the nearest I could find, but at least it gives it some perspective.  No stuffing needed for this cushion!

If you would like a few statistics, the flower took 28m of 20 strand yarn and the seat pad took about 32m.  The flower is actually the same distance across as the seat pad.  Accidental not planned!

If you have any other simple ideas for 'small' projects I would love to hear them and if any of you would be interested in a workshop please email me at www.alisonjoyw@hotmail.co.uk I will get back to you then with a price and let you know what dates are available. If you have a group of like minded friends you could get together, I would be willing to travel a reasonable distance from Devon and could arrange a date to suit you all.
Oh! One last thing, some people have been having problems commenting on my blog. If you do experience any problems could you please email me (as above) instead and explain the problem you're having and then I can try and sort it out.
Thanks for reading! I'll have a look at some of the other lovely blogs at Handmade Monday over the next few days.
Catch you soon! Alison x

Hello Chester!

Hello, hello.  I'm over the moon and really excited. Chester is finally finished! I bet you are all dyeing to see a picture of him?  Well just hang on one minute! I have to get the important stuff out of the way first.

Favecraftsblog are offering the chance to one lucky blogger to feature in their newsletter.  All they ask is for a mention, so please visit their site to see what they are all about  http://www.favecraftsblog.com/about/ and hopefully Chester and I may feature.

Before you have your first peek at the finished Chester, I would like to mention the creator of the pattern.  It was taken from a book called 'Hello my name is Amineko' written by Nekoyama.  My sister-in-law http://www.limegreenlizzie.co.uk/ started making Amineko first of all and this gave me the inspiration to try an extreme crochet version of Amineko.  Hence Chester was born!

Ok!    A drum roll please!    Here he is!  

I am really pleased with him.  He took me long enough!  I've been making him now since Christmas on and off, more on than off really. It took me all day yesterday to add his nose, mouth, eyes and ears. This photo was taken very quickly yesterday evening before we went out. I finished him at 6pm and we were due at friends down the road at 6.30pm.  Not bad timing really!

I think he's going to be quite a character!  

Here are some facts about him.

He's about 6'5" tall!

His legs and arms took a whole single duvet to stuff them!

He's put on weight since I started making him ... his waist is 50" now!

His first journey was rather undignified I'm afraid!  He wouldn't actually fit in the back seat of the car.  We had to put the seats down to fit him in the boot!  

Well I hope you like him and please keep an eye out for him, to see where he gets to in the future.  

If anyone is interested in an extreme crochet workshop, I have a couple going on over the next few months in the Devon area and I would be happy to travel a reasonable distance if a group of you fancied having a go.  Why not email me on alisonjoyw@hotmail.co.uk and have a chat, I'm sure we can arrange something.

One last thing, I am linking up to Handmade Monday over at http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog so why not pop over and see what other craft bloggers are up to.

I'm also linking to http://thirtyhandmadedays.com/ who I recently stumbled upon, so why not have a look at them too?
If you like what you see, why not sign up to my blog, I look forward to reading yours too!

Bye for now x
Happy crafting!

More Extreme Crochet!

Hi guys
Am posting from my sick bed (well sick sofa actually!).  I've got a cold - aaaaah! So have done very little today but fiddle on the computer.  I've been reading a fantastic post 'How to get on page one of google' http://www.ukcraftblog.com/2011/10/how-to-get-on-page-one-of-google.html but am now totally swamped with information!!  And it will definitely be a slow climb to the top of the Google list!! But I have at least now got something to work on.

Extreme Hooks - can be made to order

I wanted to share these humongous, hunky hooks with you :)  Aren't they wonderful?  I just love them!  What do you think?  Would you like to have a play with something as hunky as this? ;)

Starting on the left is a 12mm hook, then a 5.5mm and a 2mm.  These hunky hooks are about 25mm!!

I have a very special husband who made these for me out of a broom pole.  Not the best wood ever but it's certainly done the trick. I think you'll agree he's done a brilliant job.  I can't thank him enough, he's saved me pounds (and him!!)

You can see from the two pictures above they are about 25mm and 10" long.

Look at the size of the stitches!!  I'm going to have to do some serious 'playing'.  I'm sooo excited!!
To be honest I should also thank Donna at Little Tiny Stitches http://lovehopecraft.blogspot.com/2011/07/huge-hook.html as I came across her blog and instructions on how to make these hunky guys!  So thank you for the inspiration Donna!

You may be wondering why there are 4 hooks, all the same size.  Well let me put you out of your misery!  We have friends coming to stay this weekend and Ally and I are having a 'play'.  The theme being Extreme Crochet - what a surprise!  So we needed at least 2 hooks to play with and I know as soon as my daughter sees what we are up to she'll want a go, so there's 3 and I can think of someone else who may be interested too!!! (You know who you are Liz!)  So that's why there are 4  .... ta da!
I have a bit of mini crochet to show you too, but will do that another day.  Happy crocheting!! See you soon.

If anyone is interested in purchasing an extreme crochet hook, please email me with your requirements.  My husband can make them to order at a very reasonable price!